WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor ◈
Chapter 17
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“Not bad.”
He had braced himself for motion sickness, but it was not that bad.
The system had said it would be fine, so he had trusted it and taken the plunge. It really was fine.
That did not mean it felt completely normal.
He needed a little time to adjust, so he moved the three viewpoints around, checking and confirming various things.
“Something seems different. What is it?”
The Status Window looked slightly different. When he examined it, he found that the skill list had moved.
Originally, the avatar name had been beneath the Awakener name, with the skill list below that. Now, the skill list was beneath the Awakener name, followed by the avatar name.
“What difference does that... Huh?”
He soon realized what it meant and what had changed.
“Bound Skills are applied across all of them.”
Normal Skills, meaning skills equipped in a character’s Skill Slots, worked as before.
But Bound Skills were applied to both Juggernaut and Vulcan at the same time.
Being bound did not mean a Skill was applied to one character. It meant it was applied to Seo Hajin, the core self.
In other words, even if Multiple Viewpoints became stronger and added another avatar in the future, Bound Skills would continue applying to all of them.
“That makes Bound Conversion even more important.”
<Bound Skills>
[Passive: Slaughter Record]
[Passive: Strength Enhancement]
[Passive: Toxic Adaptation]
[Passive: Dimensional Shelter]
Those were his current Bound Skills.
None of their effects could be ignored.
“If Slaughter Record applies across all of them too, I’ll be able to build it up faster from now on.”
Having two characters would not make it accumulate twice as fast. There had to be limits to how much hunting efficiency could improve.
Still, it would be better than before.
And as the Nemesis effect rose in stage, dealing with those monsters would become easier.
‘Strength Enhancement is good too, and so is Toxic Adaptation.’
Being able to share Dimensional Shelter was not exactly a benefit. It would simply have been disappointing and inconvenient if he could not.
‘Then Skill distribution... Hm?’
Next, he noticed an explanation from the system.
Vulcan started at Level 1, but even if Vulcan gained additional levels, reward Skills would not be offered.
“So Skill rewards only go to the one with the highest level.”
It seemed fair when he thought about it, but it was still a little disappointing.
‘Using two characters by myself is already overpowered.’
He also had to reset experience distribution.
Since Vulcan needed to level quickly, he set it to Vulcan 70%, Juggernaut 15%, and Companion No. 1 15%.
‘Will this avatar get locked at Level 10 too? If so, the number of Keys required will increase later on.’
It was not something he needed to worry about yet.
Still, just in case, he decided to check the marketplace regularly and buy any Unlock Keys that appeared.
He continued checking various things afterward.
Which Skills should go to which character, and how could he use the system to create synergy?
Some ideas he had only considered as possibilities seemed like they might actually work.
It was an awkward time to test them in real combat, so he planned to get serious about it tomorrow.
“Then... should I sleep?”
He had not truly relaxed and slept deeply since the time he had passed out early on and been bitten by a poisonous insect.
He could have Companion No. 1 stand guard, but he was not confident they would do their part properly.
But things were different now.
There was a rocky hollow partway up the cliff. It was not quite large enough to call a cave yet, but it had enough room for two people to lie down.
He spread soft, dry grass there, covered it with a wolf-fur hide mat, then had Juggernaut lie down properly.
“Would this count as proper sleep, though?”
His plan was to put Juggernaut to sleep while Vulcan stood watch.
He wondered whether that meant Seo Hajin himself would still be awake, but it was something he had to test anyway.
He wondered if he would be able to sleep, but it was easier than expected.
Perhaps because he was so tired, Juggernaut relaxed quickly and fell into a deep sleep.
‘This feels strange.’
Seo Hajin looked down at Vulcan, who was still fully awake, and Juggernaut, who was sleeping soundly.
It felt like pleasantly drifting between sleep and wakefulness. He was slightly drowsy, and the stiffness in his muscles seemed to ease considerably.
But amid that drowsiness, there was still a thread of tension. It was probably Vulcan’s senses.
About three or four hours later, he did the opposite, putting Vulcan to sleep while Juggernaut stood guard.
“Some of the tension really does ease.”
It was not the refreshing feeling of waking after a truly deep sleep, but it was far better than before.
If Companion No. 1 did their part properly, it might not be bad to let both avatars sleep for about an hour.
‘Still, rather than having No. 1 stand guard, it would be better to finish this cave and make a sturdy door.’
By the time he had alternated between sleeping and waking, it was deep into the night.
Seo Hajin began the work he had assigned in advance to Juggernaut and Vulcan.
Cooking, leatherworking, organizing the items inside the subspace. There was plenty to do.
Unlike the inventory, the subspace did not organize itself automatically. Items just piled up wherever they landed, so he needed to go in regularly and sort them.
If he kept putting things in without doing that, they would pile up indiscriminately near the entrance, regardless of type.
“Ah. You could do this.”
A thought suddenly came to him.
He could leave that task to Companion No. 1.
“You aren’t affected by the time limit.”
After being tamed, Companion No. 1 seemed to be treated as an item Seo Hajin owned. Even when they entered the subspace, their time limit did not decrease.
They could not go in and out on their own, though.
Seo Hajin had to send them in or bring them out.
“Can you organize things? Just stack the same kinds together. The things meant for the shelves over there should be arranged like that.”
Nod, nod.
Companion No. 1 moved quietly and did a fairly good job. It was not particularly complicated work, but having a bipedal, humanlike body made it easier.
“Then I’ll leave this to you.”
The subspace was not dark.
Whether it was day or night outside, it remained faintly lit. It was not bright, but there was no trouble distinguishing the surroundings.
Adding something like lighting would make it brighter, but he had not felt the need yet.
Companion No. 1 seemed to prefer things as they were. Maybe it felt a little like a wolf den.
‘It’s full of their own species’ corpses and hides, but I guess they don’t mind.’
For now, he decided to leave Companion No. 1 inside the subspace and bring them out when necessary.
“Come to think of it, you have Skill Slots too, right?”
Should he give them Cooking as well?
What he consumed was not proper cooking anyway. It was closer to drying and grinding meat, fruit, and various plants, then mixing them together.
Since the work was done through a Skill, there was no need for complicated calculations. He only needed to decide what to add and how much.
“No. You can just grind each ingredient separately. I’ll set the ratios myself.”
The Cooking Skill took a fair amount of time, even if it was not as time-consuming as actual cooking.
He had to work on it during breaks between battles or at the end of the day before resting.
The more he worked, the more food he went through, after all.
As battles became more frequent and longer, his stamina consumption would naturally rise, and the amount of food he needed would increase as well.
Drinking shakes had improved efficiency, but now that he had two avatars, he had to account for that too.
“Do you think you can do it?”
After he equipped the Cooking Skill in Companion No. 1’s Skill Slot and explained several things, they struggled at first but seemed to gradually get used to it.
“You only need to make powder. Put each type of powder into these containers. You can tell what’s what by the smell, right?”
Nod, nod.
“If you get hungry while working, you can eat the meat here. Everything from this point on is your share.”
He had originally intended to use them as combat support, but somehow he had gained an odd-job helper instead.
Still, he did not regret it.
‘Even better.’
If they handled shake production properly, he could rest less and fight more.
‘I’m looking forward to tomorrow.’
There was still time before dawn.
He adjusted Vulcan’s equipment setup.
Vulcan was still Level 1, so it would be better to stay back at first. But since Vulcan had been assigned a high experience share, the level would rise quickly.
‘Hunting is much faster than it was on the first day. Considering that, even allowing for some leeway, Vulcan should reach Level 10 within ten days.’
Of course, that calculation included the fact that the two of them would be hunting together, so it might take a little less time in reality.
But when he remembered the times mobs had gathered in dangerous numbers and forced him to retreat or run, many things would change if he could wipe them out instead.
* * *
Pant, pant.
He should not have come.
Even as he pushed desperately through the grass, that was the only thought in his mind.
“Aah!”
“Where the fuck are you!”
Familiar voices.
The person who’d snickered about the women they supposedly fooled around with outside was screaming.
Someone nearby was cursing, then shouting for someone who had vanished from sight.
“Where the fuck did this bastard go now!”
They were looking for him.
It was only natural to be angry when someone hid to survive alone in a situation like this.
Still, surviving came first.
Nothing remained if he died.
‘We should never have come here in the first place.’
Many people had been watching for an opportunity.
Wolf hides kept appearing on the marketplace.
That meant someone was killing an enormous number of Wolves, and several people who had spotted the person from afar said they were a solo player.
Juggernaut.
That was the name.
Soloing in the Northern Forest was not easy, but it seemed he was somehow managing it. People said Juggernaut was probably a trapper.
Some even said Juggernaut might have the Butchery Skill. If so, he could secure whole corpses rather than relying on chance drops.
What mattered, anyway, was that his group had become obsessed.
He had too, of course.
He regretted it now, but even this morning, he had been grinning as he wondered how much they would get from looting that bastard.
‘They said we only had to watch out for the tiger.’
After pushing through the brush, he started climbing a nearby tree. He repeatedly checked his surroundings for approaching Wolves.
But the Wolves were already aggroed on the others, and none had respawned or wandered over here yet.
That was fortunate for him.
“Whew.”
After climbing the tree, the man finally crouched on a suitable branch and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
Screams and curses echoed from afar.
Or screams filled with curses.
Then some voices stopped being heard.
They were probably dead.
Who had collected their Personal Effects?
Even if someone took them, they would all be dropped again if that person died. Once things became quiet, should he search for them and pick them up?
There had never been any sense of camaraderie.
People-hunters would not have such a thing.
They had merely shared similar greed and chosen a similar goal. That had been enough until now, but it seemed they had chosen the wrong target this time.
‘What level is he? And he wasn’t alone, either.’
The rumors had been wrong.
Very wrong.
Juggernaut had not been alone.
Despite that huge body, he moved astonishingly fast and even vanished from sight now and then.
The figure who had been standing in front of them suddenly appeared behind a companion and smashed the back of their head in. Then they vanished again before killing a nearby Wolf.
It seemed Juggernaut did not distinguish between them and the Wolves.
It was simply combat.
No, simply hunting.
And there had been someone moving alongside Juggernaut.
They seemed to have a similar Skill. They disappeared and reappeared in the same way.
What had they said again?
As the group had surrounded Juggernaut from a distance, a stone axe had buried itself in someone’s face. That was when he heard it.
“Looks like I’ve got it dialed in, more or less.”
Yes.
It had probably been something like that.
Dialed in.
They had not fired a gun, so it was probably about the thrown axe. Come to think of it, the axe had struck true.
“Aah!”
“Save me! I’m sorry!”
The screams were growing quieter.
Their numbers were decreasing.
Nearly ten of them had come, but he could only hear two or three voices now.
“...”
The rest were probably dead.
He thought again about the Personal Effects they had dropped, but somehow, he felt he should not go that way.
‘Instead of this, I need to run now.’
He had gained nothing.
But he had lost nothing either.
As long as he did not die, that was enough.
Today was apparently not his day.
After wiping away the beads of cold sweat that had formed again, he looked down at the Wolves beginning to respawn.
Some had aggroed onto him, but Wolves were dying not far away, so they immediately changed targets.
‘I can’t go down there.’
It would be better to move through the trees.
The distance was considerable, but using his Leap Skill, it would not be difficult to cross between them.
After passing through two or three trees, he came to a more distant one.
Then he suddenly looked back.
The forest had gone quiet.
Wolves were still howling, but there were no more human voices.
They were all dead.
“...”
He hurried.
He put his weight into the branch beneath his feet and leaped toward a thick branch on the next tree.
Whoosh.
But before he could arrive, an arrow struck him in midair.
“Urgh!”
It was not deep.
Fortunately, it had not fully pierced his leather armor. It had only drawn a little blood.
But after barely landing in the tree on the other side, he quickly realized that was not all.
[You have been poisoned with Paralysis Poison.]
[Your body will gradually stiffen over 10 seconds.]
[Afterward, you will be unable to move for 5 seconds.]
‘A-an antidote herb...!’
He hurriedly took out a herb from his inventory, chewed it, and swallowed it. But because he had not ground it up beforehand out of laziness, swallowing it after only roughly chewing it did not let the medicine take effect properly.
It slowed the onset of paralysis, but he was struck by two more arrows in the meantime.
One of them went quite deep.
“Ghk...!”
Only then did he see the one who had shot him.
Someone had been perched on a nearby branch, though he had no idea how long they had been there.
‘...Beastkin?’
The figure looked like a boy overall, but the two large ears on top of their head did not seem to be accessories.
He had seen people make avatars in that style, but never one with the appearance of a boy.
“You fucking weeb bastard...”
Those were the last words he managed before his tongue stiffened.
They soon became his last words.
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